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Fear of the Future?

This month, we’re supposed to talk about what scares us. I could take this in many different directions. For example, there’s my fear of heights. I don’t even like buildings with open areas where you can look down on lower levels. It’s a testament to my great stubbornness that I was able to make it to the top of Saint Paul’s in London, though once I did so, I clung to the wall. Perhaps it’s a good thing I’m so short, since otherwise I might be perpetually afraid.

Something else that scares me does so on more of an intellectual level than an emotional level, and that’s climate change. As a science nerd, I read Science Blogs and Scientific American, and often they have articles about the implications of climate change. It’s no exaggeration to say that this will disrupt everything, yet it seems so remote and far away (although we’re already seeing effects, and more will appear in the next twenty to thirty years) that it’s hard to feel deep, heart-racing, stomach-churning anxiety about it. Plus, it already seems as if it’s inexorable, that no matter what we do, it won’t be enough to ward it off completely. So it’s easy to forget about climate change and focus about day-to-day matters. But my son will be dealing with the effects of climate change more than I will, so I owe it to him and my potential grandchildren to do something, even if that’s just trying to reduce my carbon footprint.

I haven’t dealt much with climate change in my fiction, but the next Catalyst Chronicles installment will take place on the future Earth, so lack of water will play a part.

Climate change scares everyone who has any sense. I’m still hoping (perhaps naively) that some of the crazier ideas, like pumping cooling gasses into the atmosphere, will help ameliorate the worst effects. Or maybe if Krakatoa, or some other huge (and isolated) volcano would obilgingly erupt…?